Futurama in real life? High speed tube transport concept can take you from New York to China in two hours

The worst part of traveling is getting stuck on a massively lengthy flight, especially if you’re in a window seat next to a crying baby, a snorer, or that anxious passenger who won’t stop shaking his nervous leg. With this Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) concept, the fuss of long distance travel could be eliminated altogether by significantly reducing travel time during this incredibly high speed transportation tube.

Seating a maximum of six passengers per tube plus a baggage compartment, the ETT can travel at a speed of approximately 4,000 miles per hour while remaining airless and frictionless. Thanks to magnetic levitation, the vacuum speed means you can go from New York to Los Angeles in a mere 45 minutes, New York to Beijing in two hours, or around the world in only six hours. Despite the high velocity, passengers will not experience discomfort because the tube apparently only produce 1G of force at top speed, comparable to riding in a normal car on a highway.

This bold claim from the folks at ET3 says the technology could be available within the next decade and can completely change the way people travel around the globe. Tubes will also be set up like freeways to prevent traffic congestion, all the while providing a quiet, train-like experience without sharing your car with hundreds of other passengers. No sign of food and waiting service available as of yet, but there is a TV for you to enjoy on your short ride.

“Just like trains, initial ETT use will be for cargo, and along high use routes of travel,” ET3 says in a statement on its official site. “Since the system is efficient in energy and materials used, high-speed travel will be low-cost, and sustainable. Eventually, everyone in the world may use the system.”

Though the idea derived from designer Daryl Oster, who imagined the ETT back in the 80s during his experience traveling to China, the concept sounds much like Comedy Central’s Futurama‘s Tube Transport System which essentially does the same thing but in a less caricatural manner. In the cartoon, a passenger can just tell the tube where he or she wants to go and off they go catapulting to their destination. The TTS is also seen to speed underwater, and we’re not sure if this will be incorporated with ETT’s construction. With subways already built underground, it could very well be possible to help reduce above ground traffic. You know, just in case flying cars also make it into the picture in the next ten years.

Exciting? Nerve-wracking? Too wild to be true? Watch a video by Next Media Animation explaining the concept below and tell us what you think of the ETT in our future.